Pedal markings

A pedal marking involves two separate symbols—one where the pedal is to be depressed (), and another where it’s to be released (). You can, if you wish, also use a dotted-line bracket.

There are two ways to create pedaling indications in Finale. The easiest method is to place them in the score as Smart Shapes using the Custom Line Tool.

If you only want to add pedaling to the playback of your piece (via MIDI), you may prefer to use the MIDI Tool. No graphic pedal markings appear in the score, but you’ll hear the pedaling on playback. Human Playback must be set to None to hear sustain indications added with the MIDI Tool. See Playback Controls for Details.

To create (pedal down) and (pedal up) markings (Smart Shape method)

Smart Shape pedal markings will playback if Human Playback is on in the Playback Controls.

1. Click the Smart Shape Tool  . The Smart Shape Palette appears.
2. Click the Custom Line Tool  .
3. From the Smart Shape Menu, choose Smart Shape Options. The Smart Shape Options dialog box appears.
4. From the Smart Line Style popup menu, choose Custom Line.   
5. Click Select next to Smart Line Style. The Smart Line Selection dialog box appears. If this file was created from a default file or template, you should see a Pedal and * line already created. If so, click Select and OK and skip to step 13. Otherwise, continue and create the Smart Line from scratch.
6. In the Smart Line Selection box, click Create. The Smart Line Designer dialog box appears.
7. From the Line Style popup menu, choose Character. Near Character, click Select and double-click on the blank character in slot 32. Check the Horizontal box to freeze the shape in a horizontal line.
8. In the Text area, click on the Edit button next to Left Start. The Edit Text dialog box appears.
9. From the Text Menu, choose Font. Set the font to Maestro and the size to 24. Click OK.  
10. While pressing option and shift, type an 8. In the Maestro music font, option-shift-8 is the marking.
11. Click OK. Repeat the steps for the Right End, only type shift-8 for the .
12. Click OK, Select and OK until you return to your score. For more information, see Custom lines.
13. Double-click where you want the line to begin; on the second click, hold the button down and drag horizontally. Release the mouse when the line has the length you want.

To draw a pedal on/off diagram (Smart Shape method)

Sometimes pedaling is indicated in a score like this:

The Smart Shape method is easy and the line will expand and contract with the measures. The Keep in mind, you can add a pedal playback effects with the MIDI Tool. See To create playback pedaling using the MIDI Tool.

1. Click the Smart Shape Tool  . The Smart Shape Palette appears.
2. Click the Custom Line Tool  .
3. From the Smart Shape Menu, choose Smart Shape Options. The Smart Shape Options dialog box appears.
4. From the Smart Line Style popup menu, choose Custom Line.  
5. Click Select next to Smart Line Style. The Smart Line Selection dialog box appears. If this file was created from a default file or template, you should see several pedal on/off lines already created. (You may need to scroll down to see them.) If so, click Select and OK and skip to step 10. Otherwise, continue and create the Smart Line from scratch.
6. In the Smart Line Selection box, click Create. The Smart Line Designer dialog box appears.
7. Check the Horizontal box to freeze the shape in a horizontal line.
8. For the End Point Style, choose a hook and enter a vertical distance for either the beginning or the end of the line. You can also choose a Custom Arrowhead for the pedal point. For more information, see Custom lines.
9. Click OK, Select and OK until you return to your score.
10. Double-click where you want the line to begin; on the second click, hold the button down and drag diagonally. Release the mouse when the line has the length you want.

To create playback pedaling using the MIDI Tool

If you don’t need pedal markings to appear in your score, but want to add the use of the sustain pedal to the playback of your score, you may find the following method faster than the Expression method.

Human Playback must be set to None to hear sustain indications added with the MIDI Tool. See Playback Controls for Details.

1. Click the MIDI Tool  . The MIDI Tool Menu appears.
2. Double-click the measure in which you want the pedal to be “pressed.” The MIDI Tool window opens.
3. From the MIDI Tool Menu, choose Edit Continuous Data. The View Continuous Data dialog box appears, in which you can select a controller whose data you want to edit.
4. Click OK (since Sustain Pedal is already selected). You return to the MIDI Tool window, where the display has changed. On the left side you see a scale of controller values—in this case, sustain pedal values—from 0 (pedal up) to 127 (pedal down). The sustain pedal is called a noncontinuous controller, because its value can’t change smoothly over time (like pitch wheel data can). You’ve either pressed the pedal (value 127) or released it (value 0). Unless you’ve already created pedaling using the MIDI Tool (or by capturing a Transcription Mode performance that included use of the sustain pedal), the window is empty.

Pedaling will appear in this window in bar graph form. In the example below, the pedal was depressed just after the second beat of measure 1, and released just after the fourth beat:

Controller information is independent of the actual notes being played—you can press the pedal even during a measure of rests, if you want. Therefore, you specify where you want to insert a “pedal down” message (or another noncontinuous controller, or a patch change) by dragging through a sliver of the graph area.

5. Drag through a small horizontal “slice” at the beginning of the graph area, as shown. Keep in mind that the actual pedal usage will occur at the beginning of the region you select (indicated by the arrow in the figure below). It really doesn’t matter, therefore, how much of the window you highlight; the pedaling message will be inserted at the far left edge of your highlighted region.

6. Choose Set To from the MIDI Tool Menu. The Set To dialog box appears. Remember that to create the “pedal down” message, you need to set the pedal’s MIDI value to 127.
7. Type 127. Click OK. You return to the MIDI window. Suddenly the entire graph area is black. That’s because you’ve just inserted a “pedal down” message without any corresponding “pedal up” message. Therefore, your synthesizer will think that the pedal is being pressed during the entire piece.
8. Drag through a small region of the graph area at the point where you want the pedal released. If the pedal release point isn’t in the same measure, click the right arrow button to scroll the music display. Remember that the “pedal up” message will fall at the beginning of your selected region.
9. Choose Set To from the MIDI Tool Menu. Click OK. You don’t have to enter a number, because the default value is already zero. When you return to the window, click anywhere except in the graph area to remove the selection highlighting.
10. Click the close box (upper-left corner of the MIDI Tool window). Once you’ve created one complete usage of the pedal, as you’ve just done, you don’t have to create it again in other measures that should contain a similar pedaling pattern. You can simply copy the pedaling from measure 1 into other measures. See To copy or erase captured (or edited) MIDI data.